Well…you know me….again, when I have work to do and it is just sitting there staring at me, I can’t let it sit when it’s only 1:00 even though I sanded and filled the widow in the bathroom this morning…so, the filler turned from pink to white meaning that it is dry and ready for sanding so I did…and now the window is ready for painting tomorrow morning and that will give me a weekend off since I don’t want to start on prepping the walls in there until Monday and that will probably only take a couple of days…but I can’t paint for three more weeks so that will mean starting on the big bedroom…and I just noticed that they wallpapered across the corners and, as the paper shrank, it pulled away from them so I’ll have to chop that out and fill the corners so it doesn’t look so ugly when I paint it….as I said earlier, it will be nice working in a room where I don’t have to contort myself to get to the things I have to work on…and unlike the bathroom, I don’t really need the big bedroom right now so I can leave my tools out when I’m working on it….so maybe I’ll have that done by May or so and that will give me the entire summer off….yeah, going to take the whole summer off…as I get older, I don’t want to work full time on this place…and the yard will give me enough work all summer with all I want to do out there…I’m tired…again…
Tag Archives: life
March 24th
Well…that was better…slept okay and only got up once at 4:14 and then out of bed at 6:13 and had some dreams that were quite realistic about driving up highway 1 in California in the dense fog and ended up in Big Sur where the sun burned it off and it was a beautiful day…and I still had the idea that I was at Lake Michigan and it was too cold to swim but then took a dive into the ocean in my clothes when I saw everyone else swimming and surfing….weird but cool…once the coffee gets working, I think I’ll feel okay this morning but right now I’m moving a little slow and feeling my age but I can’t let that get to me….have a lot to get done and only have about 12 minutes to get started on the bike….not sure why I have to be on the bike by 7…I guess I’m back to abusing myself since it feels so good when I’m done….should still be able to get to the window by 9 and will probably be done by noon or so….and I did buy some chicken legs yesterday that I need to cook for lunch…damn, no…I thawed some split breasts that need to be cooked first…so I’ll do the legs later…going to slather them in barbecue sauce for something different along with some roasted potatoes but I’m not sure if I’ll do those for lunch or dinner…decisions, decisions….not much to do today…looks like I’m going to hunker down here for a couple of weeks as the weather goes to hell and gets really cold, I mean 20’s for the high on Sunday? Oh,well…that will help me do the final push to finish the bathroom and get started on the bedroom I need to finish before summer…it will be nice to get to work on a room that is big enough to move around in and that I can seal off to contain the dust….more later….
Bad, bad window…
Well…after thinking about taking the day off to heal, like a moron I decided to get to work on the bathroom window so I pulled the shade down and got to work removing all of the other brackets that were on it…and the weird thing was that there were nails pounded into the frame all over it….and no reason whatever for them to be there…so it took me a good 45 minutes to get them all out…if I did…and then got started scraping the extra paint off that looked like it had been poured on the frame and finally got that done after another hour and a half…will have to spend the day tomorrow with the sander and I’m not sure if my hand will take it…I hope it does so I can get the filling done and get ready to do the final sanding Friday and maybe even paint Saturday….still have some touch up to do on the quarter round moulding but that will have to wait til I’m done with spreading dust all over….and then I can get on the prep for the walls but won’t be able to paint them for a couple of weeks as I let the white paint cure this time before putting painter’s tape on them to make a nice edge…more work…and more work….
March 23rd
Well…all I have to say is that sucked…slept the worst than I have in a long time and feel like crap this morning…and it is so damn confusing when you do the same thing every night and get different results…maybe I’m just getting old….I did get some work done yesterday and I am happy how the trim came out in the bathroom…and I’ll say it again…I really like the paint I chose…the eggshell finish looks quite rich and it does hide a lot of flaws….I think I need to take a day off to let my right side rest and do some cleaning around here…and I do have some dust in the bathroom that needs to be cleaned up after sanding the filler I used for the trim….I guess I can wait to work on the window til Thursday….and I want to take some of the gravel they left in the street and put it on the raw dirt in my driveway so it won’t get muddy when it rains….and then I won’t have to buy bags of it….I do need to do the grocery run this morning after the bike ride but I don’t have a lot to get so the spend won’t be much either…will probably get out with less than 30 bucks since I don’t need any protein this week…have a freezer full from last week and probably should use that up….not much to do today…I have been pretty consistent with riding the bike downstairs…no, really consistent and I am heading toward 600 miles down there so I may just take an extra day off soon to let my legs heal….won’t be outside on the bike again until April so that will have to be in the next week or so…I do need a little rest….more later….
Got the bathroom trim done…
Well….after three hours or so of work, I got the bathroom trim sanded and painted this morning and it looks okay…with how bad the trim looked, I am happy with how it came out and I like going back to the original white that was in the house years ago…not sure if the look is modern or not but it has that classic cottage look that I was going for…and it looked like they didn’t even clean the trim at all before they sloppily painted it, leaving all kinds of crap in the paint and runs everywhere…not sure if I got them all but with the eggshell finish on the paint I’ve been using, it hides a lot of flaws…and gets me back to the “good enough” standard that I have been using once I started on this place and realized I wasn’t going to do the work necessary for it to be perfect…still have a few detail things to do where I was cleaning the paint that oozed under the painters tape and took paint off the trim, too…but I’ll wait a while for that…I need to rest my right hand, elbow, and shoulder since they are really hurting right now and doing the window will abuse them some more…so, now I’m going to look for a topic and read some news and will be back shortly….more later…
March 22nd
Well…that was a little weird…didn’t wake up til 5:16 and slept through the night without any tossing and turning and that is something that I am just not used to with all of the problems I’ve had sleeping in the past…I wonder if this is just part of the progression from the sleep aids and cocktails that is still ongoing? I was even able to go back to sleep until after 6 and that was pretty cool…I think part of it was getting so many miles in yesterday and I am going to try to get an outside ride in today, too….can’t wait to get the trim painted in the bathroom today and see what it looks like after getting rid of at least a part of the ugly blue in there…after I get that done, I will start on the window Thursday and that should take the rest of the week to get it ready to paint next week…then I’ll have three weeks to get the walls ready to paint before I can mask off the trim…it was really nice to get out on the bike in just shorts and a t-shirt yesterday but those days are over for a few weeks…and it is supposed to start raining later today and rain for a couple of days with up to an inch coming so I think that will green up the lawn some if we can just get some spring temps….the big gash in my arm is healing up nicely and I really need to remember how sharp the new chisels are so I don’t do more damage….not much to do today….just need to get on the bike here in 8 minutes or so and then get on the bathroom…don’t think the painting will take more than a a couple of hours to do two coats even with doing the sanding first…and then I need to make lunch and use some of the chicken I got last week…and then outside for a ride if I can get going before the rain comes in….more later….
Not guilty anymore…
Well…after finishing up my work for the day before 3, I was feeling a little guilty for not doing more today…but then, when I saw the temp was almost 65 at 5:15, I jumped on the bike to put in another 13 miles outside…so with the 8 miles downstairs, that makes 34 miles in today…so I don’t feel guilty anymore but I am going to be sore tomorrow..and that’s already started with my legs but I can deal with that with only having sanding and painting to do tomorrow…but, I am finally done for the day…no more later….
Got some new tools…
Well…as I talked about earlier this morning, I was going to hit HF for some tools that I needed to make my life easier as I work on this place and make my slow progress from grimy and ugly to acceptable…to me anyway. I needed a set of wood chisels to help with the detail work on all of the wood there is in here and I have already used them to both work on the trim in the bathroom and to injure myself when the smallest one slipped scraping the heating grates and I dug a big chunk out of my arm…pretty darn sharp chisels and they worked great on the trim so I can’t wait to work on the window in there with them. I also got a new half round file, a new wire brush, and a masonry chisel to cut down the blocks that I am going to use to fill in next to the house so I won’t be curling my garden hose in the mud anymore…and the space I’m going to fill is triangular shaped so I’ll need that chisel a lot…and filling in the whole area will give me a place to put a gas grille if I ever pull the trigger and buy one….now I’m done for the day other than getting a ride in outdoors in shorts around 2 o’clock after the showers end out here….worn out again…darn…
March 21st
Well…running a little late today with not getting up until 6:17 and now I only have 14 minutes to get this done before I have to get on the bike for the indoor ride for the day….slept okay and I am really amazed how well I’ve been sleeping since I quit all of the aids that I had been using for years….and trying to sleep was one of the most anxiety generating things I did in those years…but that is pretty much gone now and being officially retired has helped that….with no schedule to keep anymore, if I have a bad night where I don’t sleep I can adjust my day to fit how I feel…and that is a luxury that everyone should have….had a normal Sunday yesterday with not a lot of work but I did continue removing the paint from the second heat register and I may be able to finish that up today…but it is going to be a busy day with the indoor ride, an errand out to HF, filling the trim in the bathroom to get ready to sand tomorrow, and then getting an outdoor ride in after lunch…and I may even be able to get one in tomorrow but then the weather goes back down into the 40’s for the rest of the month and into April….and that sucks….but that makes it a little urgent to get the indoor stuff done before I need to put all my time into getting the yard cleaned up and getting the garden border done along with choosing what perennials I want to plant around the back of the house…I did notice I have crocuses popping up in the dirt there so that will be cool and I am thinking about some small bell shaped plants that we had around the house when I was growing up…okay, just had to check the name and they are called Lily of the Vallies….and they thrive in shade so I can plant them on the east side of the house…time to get on the bike…more later….
Happy spring!
Well…I was trying to get this one started and had my fingers one key off on the home row of the computer and lots of weird looking words came out…but, I fixed that so here goes….it is the first day of spring today and I don’t feel like I have spring fever at all…in fact I feel like I have reverse spring fever with just feeling exhausted today but it’s my rest day so that works out okay….it was nice enough to get out on the bike today but I resisted that since it is my day off and I really do need some rest for some reason…so, I’ll just do a double tomorrow to make up for it….I have realized that I do need some new tools as I work on all the wood around here…so, after spending 30 bucks at HF Friday, I’ll be back there tomorrow to pick up a new multi purpose file and a set of 4 wood chisels getting ready for working on the doors in here and cleaning up the corners of the baseboards…the 4 pack has chisels from a quarter inch to one inch for only 8 bucks and the file is only 4 bucks and they all should come in handy….and give my new putty knife a rest…and I had to spend 30 bucks on allergy meds this morning,too…got 5 bottles of generic flonase on amazon when the name brand stuff costs about 15 bucks per bottle so that’s a pretty good deal and I am going to need it if my allergies keep getting worse…I am still waiting for real spring to get here and that is not going to happen for the rest of March…that sucks but the trails are already melted and that is 3 weeks earlier than last year so I can live with it…I do want to talk about some tv and that will be in the next one…more later…